Since the pandemic hit, there's no denying that our lives had drastic changes. Suddenly, we were cut off from the things that we took for granted: meeting our friends on Friday night, dining out, and socializing in general. We had to adapt to the change, and, thankfully, we had the Internet.
Digital Socializing
Humans are social animals, there is no way around that: we have to go out and talk to others. Since we couldn't do it anymore, we took everything to social networks. Facebook, Netflix, YouTube — it seems like these platforms only benefitted from people staying at home, as they've seen the enormous rise since the lockdown began. It's only natural because we have to at least fool ourselves into thinking that we still can quench our social thirst.
Video Conferencing
We used to hate calls, as they always were obnoxious and inferior to live meetings, but now, they have so deeply rooted into our lives, that we can't imagine an IRL meeting. Zoom, Google Meet, Skype became our best friends and colleagues in one form or another. Besides, we learned that they come with their benefits — you can hop on a call from any place, any time, and you don't have to move a muscle anymore.
Gaming
While gaming was a comforting thing for seems like forever, today it's a great way to "replace" yourself with a 3D character and chat with your friends. VR chat became the best friend of people who could play it. It hosts thousands of people in regular chat rooms, but some took it to the next level, hosting big cons and events there: some bands even gave concerts there. In general, gaming became a way to forget about the bad things that are happening around us, and another way to connect with our friends.
Delivery Chains
Throughout 2020, we learned the hard way, that delivery services are our best friends. Only two years ago, we could choose to go to the store ourselves and pick up our goodies by hand, but today, even if we do have the choice, we order the delivery. Food deliveries like Uber Eats are more popular than ever, and they will likely stay that way. And there are more delivery services to come: those businesses who didn't have it were forced to adapt and overcome.
Businesses Gone Online
With all the stores had to be closed, businesses still had to make their living, so they were forced to go online. That meant going through making a website, and changing many internal things: and that was hard. Thankfully, many services and companies could help you out with those, even if you were on a tight budget. If you still need to make your website done and set up, hit us up, and we'll make everything to make it perfect and unique!
People Started to Work from Home
All of us had to work remotely, even if there wasn't such an opportunity before. This came with its challenges: we had our routines disrupted, and our workflows ruined. Communication had to be reestablished from the very core, as you couldn't just go and take to your colleague — now you have to deal with your apps and reach them there. The notion has been a great tool for us at Movadex, I'm even writing this post there right now, wow!
We Started Taking Breaks from Our Phones
We used to cherish the moments that we had with our smartphones because we were busy with our everyday lives. After the pandemic hit, all that we were left with were our phones: and we quickly got bored, even fed up with them. Good thing that we had computers, though. Jokes aside, we had to rethink our way of interacting with our small PC friends, and some of us did the impossible — started taking breaks from them, and it's the best thing ever.
Telemedicine
The Healthcare industry took the biggest hit in 2020, and bravely defended our lives. Honestly, I can't thank all the nurses and doctors for their input in our safety, they are truly the heroes. Apart from dealing with the virus, most of the appointments had to be taken online, and that's where telemedicine came in. With the pandemic, lots of people started struggling with anxiety and depression, and it's very important to take action as soon as possible. Thanks to telemedicine, we are now able to talk to the doctor from our phones or PC — now we have even more tools to take care of our health.
Summary
Even though we had bad times in 2020, we adapted and came on top of it. With the vaccination ongoing all around the world, we are getting closer to the end of the pandemic, but will we be able to go back to how things were? In my opinion, we had an important lesson, and we have to be more careful from now on. Ill? Take your mask on, or stay at home. Go to a doctor and get help. Your health is a number one priority, but never put others in danger.
